The allegations have not yet been tested in court and Bayer says it stands behind the safety of the products.
Roundup, the brand name of a glyphosate-based herbicide that is the subject of the lawsuit, is the most commonly used herbicide in the world and has been sold across Canada since 1976 by U.S. company Monsanto. The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018.
About 165,000 claims have been filed in the U.S. against Bayer alleging Roundup caused users to get sick. The company says 113,000 of those claims have been resolved, meaning plaintiffs were financially compensated or the cases were deemed to be ineligible.
The Canadian case comes as the controversial ingredient glyphosate was taken out of household Roundup products in the U.S. this month.
“We took this action exclusively to help manage litigation risk in the U.S. and not because of any product safety concerns,” a Bayer email statement reads. “The vast majority of claims in the U.S. have come from residential lawn and garden users, so this action largely eliminates the primary source of future claims.”
In 2023, at least five U.S. plaintiffs won their Roundup-related court cases against Bayer – requiring the company to pay almost $2 billion in punitive damages and nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages. Several of these decisions are being appealed. Reuters reported that last month, Bayer won a trial against a related lawsuit, ending what had been a five-trial losing streak for the company in trials over similar claims.
While Americans looking to kill weeds around their homes may no longer be using products with glyphosate, Bayer says the ingredient will remain in Roundup products across Canada – both for household and agricultural use – renewing questions over whether this country’s pest regulations are doing enough to protect Canadians’ health.
In 2019, Health Canada re-approved glyphosate for sale in Canada until April 27, 2032 with the caveat that producers needed to have more details on labels. But glyphosate is banned for cosmetic use and sale in certain parts of Canada, such as Montreal.
France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Vietnam are some of the countries with partial or complete bans on glyphosate.
Jeffrey DeBlock is hoping Canadians will reconsider their use of the product.
As a 14-year-old in the 1990s, DeBlock started his high school summer job at a family friend’s farm near Exeter, Ont. For a few weeks each summer, he wore a backpack connected to a handheld sprayer that he would use to cover roughly 400 acres of crops with Roundup.
“(Roundup) was deemed to be safe, actually very safe. That is why we were using it… We read through all the materials,” DeBlock said. “We’d be cautious about how we pour it, mix it. But thereafter, I’d be out there (in a) long-sleeve shirt, jeans, rubber boots and sort of walking in the field and I did get it on my, you know, hands and face.”
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In high school, DeBlock began to experience fatigue. He saw a doctor, who wrote it off as stress from high school life or maybe mono.
“I had night fevers, night chills, sweats. Felt a lot of pain,” DeBlock said. “Numbness down my leg because my spleen was about two plus times the size it should have been – a 10, 15-centimetre tumour in around my hip. And it was getting very uncomfortable. Very painful.”
DeBlock lost about 50 pounds in nine months. He finally got CT scans, which allowed doctors to diagnose him on what should have been his last day of high school with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. On his 18th birthday, DeBlock started an aggressive six-month chemotherapy treatment. He was given a 20 per cent chance to live two more years.
“It was pretty challenging treatment…that I don’t really wish on anyone,” DeBlock said. “It was very humbling and difficult on myself, my family and my friends.”
DeBlock beat the odds and is now a 46-year-old dad living in Toronto. He believes that using Roundup caused him to get cancer as a teen, and he’s now the lead plaintiff in the Canadian class action.
“I think the product in its current form is just simply not safe and is carcinogenic,” DeBlock said. “I really don’t want to see other people going through what I’ve had to go through.”
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said in 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” More research has come out since then, including a multi-institutional global glyphosate study released in October 2023, which found that low doses of glyphosate-based herbicides appeared to cause leukemia in rats.
The next hearing date for the case has yet to be scheduled.
Declining an interview, a Bayer company spokesperson sent an emailed statement emphasizing that leading health regulators in Canada and around the world have repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not a carcinogen and that glyphosate products are safe when used according to label directions.
“While we have great sympathy for the plaintiff, we are confident our glyphosate products are not the cause of his illness,” the emailed statement reads in part. “Bayer stands fully behind the safety of our glyphosate products, which have been used safely and successfully in Canada and internationally for nearly 50 years.”
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland declined an interview about glyphosate.
Do Canadian regulations need to change?
However, there remain calls for domestic regulations to be adjusted.
One of the leading scientists calling for change in Health Canada’s classification of glyphosate is Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University.
In 2022, Lanphear accepted an invitation to co-chair Health Canada’s scientific advisory committee under the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), formed to increase transparency around the regulatory process for pesticides in Canada. But after serving for less than a year, Lanphear grew frustrated and resigned, calling for a complete overhaul of the way pesticides are regulated in Canada.
At the time, new studies had come out about glyphosate, including a survey of urine samples showing glyphosate levels in people living in Canada.
“All the previous risk management was done making assumptions about how much exposure is actually out there,” Lanphear said. This new survey included data on humans. But Lanphear alleged Health Canada would not allow the committee to examine it.
Questions posed by scientists on the committee had to be approved by Health Canada, which Lanphear said could take three to four months. If approved, the scientists may get some additional information into their queries, he said, but sometimes information was withheld.
In an emailed statement, Health Canada said it is committed to being open and transparent.
“No information relating to the safety of certain pesticides, including glyphosate, has been withheld from Health Canada’s Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products,” the email statement reads.
The widespread exposure of glyphosate is a concern for Lanphear, because he says there are no safe thresholds below which pesticides are harmless.
“If you have hundreds of pesticides, what if some of those pesticides or other toxic chemicals interact and magnify the health effects of each other? We haven’t even begun to look at the joint effects,” he said.
Yet, Health Canada disagrees and says a small amount of glyphosate may not be cause for concern.
“The amount of glyphosate detected in humans is very low, more than 1000 times below the screening level (which is the level that would trigger further analysis) and is not a health concern.”
Gathering enough studies to limit or ban glyphosate is a hurdle that Lanphear characterized as “an extraordinary and daunting task.” Once a pesticide is given the green light, Lanphear claims it is very difficult to overturn the decision even if new evidence is found.
“This is going to take decades, and in the process, what’s happening? Canadians are being used in a massive experiment – one that they’ve never been asked or consented to participate in,” he said. “We now know that [glyphosate] exposure is widespread and this is just in the last five to 10 years.”
Are there other alternatives?
There are some Canadian farmers who are already trying to phase out glyphosate, including Christopher Dermott in Utopia, Ont.
Dermott runs a 1,500-acre family farm where they’ve been growing wheat, corn and soybeans for generations. Since 2023, he has devoted himself to his “hope and dream” of finding a different way to grow food.
“This year, I have probably cut at least half of [the glyphosate] we generally would use in a year,” Dermott said.
But the change is no small commitment.
“Glyphosate is so common because it makes farming easy. It is a product that will easily wipe out the weeds that are a nuisance in your farms,” Dermott said.
Part of what fuelled Dermott’s decision to shift his farm was a worry of whether his family could have health risks from the herbicide.
“I definitely was worried about exposure. Your kids want to play outside…my son would want to come up and ride in the tractor or the combine or even in the sprayer,” Dermott said. “And I want to see my kids be able to go out and walk in that field.”
Dermott has begun making his own “brews,” composed of good bacteria that naturally occurs in lakes or ponds mixed with water and molasses, to act as natural weed and disease deterrents. While it takes more time and money than using Roundup, Dermott said it has been just as effective in keeping weeds and mold off his crops.
“I’m not putting something on the plant that can be harmful to the plant or to people who are consuming it,” he said.
Dermott believes more farmers would phase out glyphosate if they had access to resources detailing how to do it.
“The unknown is hard for a farmer – changing practices (from) doing something your father’s always done for the past 30 years,” Dermott said. “And (it’s) not to say what my father did was wrong. But when there are other people researching and trying new ways of managing how to be a better farmer, I think we can’t be scared of that.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alaska man accused of sending graphic threats to injure and kill six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members has been indicted on federal charges, authorities said Thursday.
Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of sending more than 465 messages through a public court website, including graphic threats of assassination and torture coupled with racist and homophobic rhetoric.
The indictment does not specify which justices Anastasiou targeted, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said he made the graphic threats as retaliation for decisions he disagreed with.
“Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families,” he said.
Anastasiou has been indicted on 22 counts, including nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce.
He was released from detention late Thursday by a federal magistrate in Anchorage with a a list of conditions, including that he not directly or indirectly contact any of the six Supreme Court justices he allegedly threatened or any of their family members.
During the hearing that lasted more than hour, Magistrate Kyle Reardon noted some of the messages Anastasiou allegedly sent between March 2023 and mid-July 2024, including calling for the assassination of two of the Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices so the current Democratic president could appoint their successors.
Instead of toning down his rhetoric after receiving a visit from FBI agents last year, Anastasiou increased the frequency of his messages and their vitriolic language, Reardon said.
Gray-haired and shackled at the ankles above his salmon-colored plastic slippers, Anastasiou wore a yellow prison outfit with ACC printed in black on the back, the initials for the Anchorage Correctional Facility, at the hearing. Born in Greece, he moved to Anchorage 67 years ago. Reardon allowed him to contact his elected officials on other matters like global warming, but said the messages must be reviewed by his lawyers.
Defense attorney Jane Imholte noted Anastasiou is a Vietnam veteran who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer and has no financial means other than his Social Security benefits.
She told the judge that Anastaiou, who signed his own name to the emails, worried about his pets while being detained. She said he only wanted to return home to care for his dogs, Freddie, Buddy and Cutie Pie.
He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count of making threats against a federal judge and up to five years for each count of making threats in interstate commerce if convicted.
Threats targeting federal judges overall have more than doubled in recent years amid a surge of similar violent messages directed at public officials around the country, the U.S. Marshals Service previously said.
In 2022, shortly after the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a man was stopped near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with weapons and zip ties.
ROME (AP) — Canadian and Italian dignitaries on Thursday marked the successful recovery of a photo portrait of Winston Churchill known as “The Roaring Lion,” stolen in Canada and recovered in Italy after a two-year search by police.
At a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Rome, Italian carabinieri police handed over the portrait to the Canadian ambassador to Italy, Elissa Goldberg, who praised the cooperation between Italian and Canadian investigators that led to the recovery.
The 1941 portrait of the British leader taken by Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh is now ready for the last step of its journey home to the Fairmont Château Laurier, the hotel in Ottawa where it was stolen and will once again be displayed as a notable historic portrait.
Canadian police said the portrait was stolen from the hotel sometime between Christmas 2021 and Jan. 6, 2022, and replaced with a forgery. The swap was only uncovered months later, in August, when a hotel worker noticed the frame was not hung properly and looked different than the others.
Nicola Cassinelli, a lawyer in Genoa, Italy, purchased the portrait in May 2022 at an online Sotheby’s auction for 5,292 British pounds. He says he got a phone call from the auction house that October advising him not to sell or otherwise transfer the portrait due to an investigation into the Ottawa theft.
Cassinelli, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, said he thought he was buying a regular print and quickly agreed to send the iconic Churchill photograph home when he learned its true story.
“I immediately decided to return it to the Chateau Laurier, because I think that if Karsh donated it to the hotel, it means he really wanted it to stay there, for the particular significance this hotel had for him, and for his wife too,” Cassinelli told The Associated Press.
The famous image was taken by Karsh during Churchill’s wartime visit to the Canadian Parliament in December 1941. It helped launch Karsh’s career, who photographed some of the 20th century’s most famed icons, including Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth.
Karsh and his wife Estrellita gifted an original signed print to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in 1998. The couple had lived and operated a studio inside the hotel for nearly two decades.
Geneviève Dumas, general manager of the Fairmont Château Laurier, said on Thursday she felt immensely grateful.
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everybody involved in solving this case, and ensuring the safe return of this priceless piece of history.”
Police arrested a 43-year-old man from Powassan, Ontario, in April and have charged him with stealing and trafficking the portrait. The man, whose name is protected by a publication ban, faces charges that include forgery, theft over $5,000 and trafficking in property obtained by crime exceeding $5,000.
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the United States in part on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorizing the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power since two of its leaders were arrested in the United States in late July. Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces.
Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to pop up around the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove by pools of the blood leading to a body in a car mechanic shop, while heavily armed police in black masks loaded up another body stretched out on a side street of the Sinaloan city.
Asked at his morning briefing if the U.S. government was “jointly responsible” for this violence in Sinaloa, the president said, “Yes, of course … for having carried out this operation.”
The recent surge in cartel warfare had been expected after Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, landed near El Paso, Texas on July 25 in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada was the cartel’s elder figure and reclusive leader. After his arrest, he said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzmán and taken to the U.S. against his will.
On Thursday afternoon, another military operation covered the north of Culiacan with military and circling helicopters.
Traffic was heavy in Culiacan and most schools were open, even though parents were still not sending their children to classes. Businesses continue to close early and few people venture out after dark. While the city has slowly reopened and soldiers patrol the streets, many families continue to hide away, with parents and teachers fearing they’ll be caught in the crossfire.
“Where is the security for our children, for ourselves too, for all citizens? It’s so dangerous here, you don’t want to go outside,” one Culiacan mother told the Associated Press.
The mother, who didn’t want to share her name out of fear of the cartels, said that while some schools have recently reopened, she hasn’t allowed her daughter to go for two weeks. She said she was scared to do so after armed men stopped a taxi they were traveling in on their way home, terrifying her child.
During his morning press briefing, López Obrador had claimed American authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada and that “it was totally illegal, and agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr. Mayo.”
“If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because they (the American government) made that decision,” he said.
He added that there “cannot be a cooperative relationship if they take unilateral decisions” like this. Mexican prosecutors have said they were considering bringing treason charges against those involved in the plan to nab Zambada.
He was echoed by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who said later in the day that “we can never accept that there is no communication or collaboration.”
It’s the latest escalation of tensions in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Last month, the Mexican president said he was putting relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on pause” after ambassadors criticized his controversial plan to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary by requiring all judges to stand for election.
Still, the Zambada capture has fueled criticisms of López Obrador, who has throughout his administration refused to confront cartels in a strategy he refers to as “hugs not bullets.” On previous occasions, he falsely stated that cartels respect Mexican citizens and largely fight amongst themselves.
While the president, who is set to leave office at the end of the month, has promised his plan would reduce cartel violence, such clashes continue to plague Mexico. Cartels employ an increasing array of tactics, including roadside bombs or IEDs, trenches, home-made armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.
